Hacker News Reader

> It's strange. Obesity is our biggest preventable health problem, and it gets almost no attention in the media or by public officials.

I have seen many, many reports, news specials, CDC website reports about being overweight and obese driving increases in health risks. Michelle Obama, as First Lady, was on top of it and reformed the food pyramid nonsense.

Really? There are multi-billion dollar industries catering to the obesity issue - health food, supplements, exercise equipment, exercise gurus. Employers offering incentives since it leads to lower insurance costs. In the USA, health food options have grown tremendously in the last 10 years, but at the same time obesity has gone up.

All of those are useless. But profitable. As long as they don't solve the core issue, which seems to be in the brain.

Because, like alcoholism, it's a choice. If you force people to lose weight, why not force them to stop poisoning themselves.

Of course, it's all a bunch of hypocritical bs when other, safer, more useful drugs are banned or restricted for stupid reasons.

It's strange. Obesity is our biggest preventable health problem, and it gets almost no attention in the media or by public officials. We heard endlessly from health officials and news media personalities to wash our hands, stay indoors, wear a mask, get vaccinated, but nothing about eating healthier, eating less, exercising more?

Because it's been going on in the background so long, that it became part of the background.

Also, it's not like it's not noticed by public officials. You hear all the time in recommendations and guidelines we should lose weight and get more exercise.

That said, I would also note that current public health policy is basically a failure in that we largely failed to move the needle regarding the obesity pandemic or getting the recommended exercise dose.

> recommendations and guidelines we should lose weight and get more exercise

We also don't understand it, not well at least. You can't go to Walgreens, get a shot and be cured of obesity.

What part of obesity is not well understood?

Societies with easy access to calories and sugar/carbs/sat fats and reduction in movement and increase in sitting have more obesity, right?

Societies with easy access to calories and sugar/carbs/sat fats and reduction in movement and increase in sitting have more obesity, right?

I am doubtful that easy access to calories means more obesity. The Japanese is a wealthy society and is less obese than the American, for example.

Also, societies that move more doesn't necessary have an increase in TDEE as society that move less. Your basal metabolism adjusts and accounts for physical activities. you would probably need to go to extreme to adjust your TDEE upward.

I’m sure there are cultural and genetic components also, but you can simply compare parents and their children over the past few decades in countries with obesity problems to control for some of that.

It would be a great experiment to ramp up sugar taxes on certain parts of the country and see weight change over the decades.